Great News! Our film about food co-ops in the Twin Cities was selected as a Winner of the United Nations International Year of Cooperatives (IYC) Short Film Festival held at the UN headquarters in New York City last month. Several co-op leaders, myself, and members of my crew travelled to New York to receive the award. We produced this 15-minute film– a chapter from the feature-length film Food For Change– to gain advance publicity for the feature film to be released in Spring 2013, and to show strategies to expand the cooperative movement in the United States and throughout the world.

Project Director Steve Alves gives updates on the fundraising status of the film and talks about the presentation of the rough-cut at CCMA in Philadelphia. Also included is audience feedback from the CCMA audience. Two clips are released from the rough cut shown at CCMA. The first is from the first 13-minutes in the work-in-progress film, and the second is the last eight minutes. Co-Producer Rob Hagelstein writes an article about what cooperation means to him. Finally, the Principal Sponsor map is updated with three new contributors.

Project Director Steve Alves gives updates on the editing process. Three new clips are released. Clip #1 is from the rough cut and examines the growth of food co-ops in the 1970s. Clip #2 features Seward Co-op General Manager Sean Doyle talking about issues facing food co-ops today. Clip #3 is about the new wave of co-op growth. Clips 1 & 2 are not from the rough cut but are a step in the editing process of ferreting out the salient topics for last part of the film. A map of all the principal sponsors is released, showing which co-ops are contributing the film in line with the funding plan. Finally, it is announced that Food For Change will be attending CCMA this year in Philadelphia.

Here is Tomorrow

The cooperative movement’s first sound motion picture, Here is Tomorrow was released for distribution on January 1, 1942. It was produced by Documentary Film Productions, Inc., under the direction of Herbert Kerkow and Willard Van Dyke, for The Cooperative League of the U. S. A.

For years we hadn’t given as much attention to education about cooperatives as we should. As a result, the long-term consequences to our co-op and the cooperative economy is misinformation and confusion about just what co-ops are and their importance in our economy. I’m sure we’re not the only co-op that’s done this. It’s not uncommon for people to think there’s little difference between co-ops and privately-owned natural foods stores. If we expect this to change, we need to put more resources toward our Fifth Principle: Continue reading “Franklin Community Co-op”

Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op has invested $3,500 in this project, following the funding plan, because it supports our Ends which says our store “exists to create a vibrant, local and sustainable cooperative community.” We plan to use this important documentary to tell the cooperative story – our story – in hopes to inspire future generations of shoppers, owners and employees to carry on the legacy of the cooperative model.Continue reading “Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op”

Wheatsville Food Co-op believes that the cooperative business model is a most awesome model and we think more people need to know about it. That’s why we’ve contributed $5,000 to Food for Change in line with the project’s funding plan.Continue reading “Wheatsville Co-op”

We’re investing in Food For Change because it tells the inspiring story of co-ops in the United States at a time when our cooperative ideas are as important as ever. This project has the right ingredients for success: a compelling story, a skilled production team, and a ready-made audience–all of us who work and shop at co-ops.Continue reading “Wedge Community Co-op”